Iran sees drop in meat imports
According to the head of INAB, Saeed Soltani Sarvestani, meat imports currently make up around 10% of the population’s needs. Official statistics show that Iran has completely stopped imports of poultry, so almost all imports are beef and lamb, as pork consumption is prohibited by Islamic law.
"[In 2013/14] it was originally planned to import about 250,000t of meat. However, measures taken by the authorities have reduced the imports of these products to 90,000t," said Sarvestani, adding that the growth of domestic production had received strong support from the government, with special measures put in place to support livestock.
"These measures included preventing the smuggling of live animals abroad, the resumption of work on livestock farms which had recently stopped or reduced meat production, an increase in the average weight of animals at slaughter, as well as a timely supply of feed [to farmers]. This year, it is expected that these same measures will reduce meat imports to Iran further to about 50,000t," he said.
At the same time Sarvestani said that, in recent years, Iran had experienced a rise in meat consumption. "At this point the consumption of meat in Iran per capita is about 13kg. In total the country annually consumes about 1 million tonnes (mt) of meat from cattle. Last year we produced 930,000t."
In addition, Iran annually consumes about 2.2mt of poultry and, in 2013/14, it produced 2.15mt – a 12% increase year-on-year – all but covering internal demand.
According to INAB, the largest exporters of beef to the country were Brazil, India and Pakistan. Currently, the deliveries from Pakistan and India are almost zero.
Supplies of beef from Brazil reached a peak in 2011, when Iran imported beef amounting to around US$60 million, temporarily becoming the largest buyer of Brazilian beef in the world. According to official data, imports of beef from Brazil have consistently declined from that time, having fallen around two-and-a-half times to current levels. However, Brazilians still account for 82% of all shipments of beef to Iran.
The country is also importing small amounts of lamb from Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, as well as poultry from Ukraine.
Since 2012 Iran has put a lot of support behind the development of meat production, when a lack of meat at markets led to a sharp rise in prices, which in turn stimulated social unrest in the country.
